Day 4/ July 10 / 72.7 miles and 4,710 feet / 100 degrees with a west wind gusting to 20+ mph

Today was a day of contrasts. We started and ended along the Columbia River, but we traveled from the land of forest canopy to the desert moraine of a canyon carved by the ice age 10,000+ years ago.

There were several good vistas along the way with views of Mt Hood as we were in the Hood River area of Oregon. There was a swift west wind blowing us along the route today – with 20 mph gusts. A west wind is great until you have to turn west to head into town at the end of a long hot day – and then it becomes your enemy.

We had a couple of nice downhills with switchbacks to keep us alert. Of course, if there are nice downhills then that means it was preceded by an uphill climb…the west wind helped some with the climbs (or at least it didn’t hinder the climbing).

We also traveled into Washington for about 20 miles before crossing back over the Columbia River to spend the night in Biggs Junction, OR. If you’ve never heard of Biggs Junction, don’t feel too bad, as it is barely a blip on the map. We had to travel nine miles to Wasco, OR (another boom town) for dinner.